Happy National Farmer's Market Week!

To celebrate, we bring you eggplant!

Of course, being French, the first thing that comes to my mind is ratatouille since it includes all the other August allstars vegetables shining at the market right now: peppers, onions, zucchini, tomatoes and rip-roaring basil. Recipes that pull together what grows together always please me most.

But eggplant, done right, can easily carry a dish on its own.

Consider this simple grilled eggplant, finished with EVOO infused with garlic and jalapeño. Serve it with whipped feta and pita bread, or focaccia fromWave Hill Breads. Or those lemon-y pita chips from SAHA GUYS, back this week with their Mediterranean spreads, including baba ganoush which you can also make yourself using this recipe.

When it comes to eggplant, many home cooks ask: To salt or not to salt?
Suzy Karadsheh, of The Mediterranean Dish highly recommends salting your eggplant before cooking. “The salt will do its magic in extracting excess moisture (and any bitterness out) while enhancing flavor,” she says. “Salt also breaks the eggplant’s spongy texture, turning it more tender and creamy once cooked. Simply slice it up and give it a good dash of kosher salt on each side, then let the slices sit for about 30 minutes or so until you see some beads of water on the surface. Be sure to wipe the eggplant dry and remove excess salt before cooking.”

Ditto for cucumbers! I like to slice my cucumber into a bowl a couple of hours before serving, then salt and stir the slices so the salt coats each one. Empty the bowl into a colander set in the sink. If you put a bowl to capture the water the cucumbers release you'll be amazed at just how much water is released,  adding crunch and deep flavor to your cukes! This is one extra step that really pays off. No need to rinse the cucumbers. The salt will have been completely absorbed.

I'm kicking myself for not having taken a picture of the market cucumber salad earlier this week: yellow and green Halal Pastures cucumbers, sliced, chopped celery (with some celery leaves thrown in),  sliced raw fennel bulb, charred kernels from corn cobs that had been grilled in their husks the night before), plenty of feta and and toasted pistachios.  I added fresh mint from the garden, which is abundant at the market right now. I cannot wait to make this again. You'll have to trust me on how pretty it was. You can get tight and tangy goat feta cubes from Sugar Shack Creamery this week, or a moist block of cow's milk feta in brine from Maplebrook. 
 
Another recipe that's all about seasonal convergence is the perennial crowd-pleaser, salade niçoise. There are many variations on this dish but the one I've been making for years,  always includes a bed of bibb lettuce,  flash-steamed green beans, boiled new potatoes, fresh red pepper slices, fresh tomato wedges, hard-boiled eggs, anchovy fillets, crinkly black olives,  and of course tuna. The classic preparation calls for oil-cured tuna (I love the Tonnino brand if you can find it at your local market) but when you have access to fresh sushi-grade tuna to sear at the market, as we do, you get a pass for breaking the rules.  This has been our go-to dish for guests on hot steamy nights this summer. Not everyone is a fan of anchovies so you can serve those on the side. The salad is not tossed, all the ingredients are simply laid out on a platter, then drizzled with a classic lemony vinaigrette, so picky eaters can remove the elements they are not fond of. But truly, it's the blend of flavors that mesh together so beautifully in this refreshing, hearty salad. If you need a recipe, try this one. A Bien Cuit baguette is a must, of course. As is a bottle of your favorite rosé.

Halal is also bringing in tiny cantaloupes this week that are BIG on sweet, sweet flavor. A half melon, scooped of its seeds, and filled with White Moustache yogurt, a spoonful of blackberries, and a drizzle of  Hudson River Apiaries sounds like a champion's breakfast to me. Wouldn't that look grand on a Sunday morning breakfast tray? (Speaking of breakfast...make sure you pick up some apple jam from new vendor Croton Trading, sourced from Hudson Valley apples). 

But don't hesitate to add cantaloupe to savory preparations as in this recipe which brings together two more August all-stars: corn and cantaloupe, on toasts with ricotta and salami – though any cured meat from  Larchmont Charcuterie or Goode & Local would only elevate this dish.

Don't forget to bring all of your textile discards for the eco-friendly GreenTree Recycling Bin. The bin lives all week long in the southernmost row of the MTA lot.

And don't forget to celebrate and congratulate our farmers this week for all of their hard work.

See you at the market!